May 27, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
431 
run hurriedly about seeking exit, all in a state of excitement, crossing 
over the combs in tremulous anxiety, her majesty is absent. If, on 
the other hand, the bees, ten minutes after the removal of the super 
from the hive, evince none of these signs of discomfort and do not seem 
anxious to depart, but quite at rest, the queen is there. In this case, 
if she cannot be caught without injury—and she very rarely can— 
the super must be replaced upon the stock and the attempt be made 
some hours after ; or better still, another day, when it may please her 
majesty to keep within her own more proper domain and not commit 
the trespass of wandering from the brood nest to the honeycomb. 
But if her absence is ascertained the bees may now be given a chance 
to leave the super ; but it is well to keep changing from spot to spot, as 
the leaving bees sometimes return with others anxious to regain their 
stolen store and cause an unnecessary disturbance ; in fact, if not 
watched closely two will enter for one that leaves. A super in 
course of renewal must be carefully watched and guarded vigilantly 
from robbers often, especially when the honey flow is over, on the 
watch for spoils. Many bees have now left, but numbers still remain, 
and these may be induced to leave by gently tapping on the side of 
the super. I often think that preventing them from leaving for five 
or ten minutes at a time has a good effect, as, realising their captive 
position, they gladly escape when the means are given them. It is 
also a good plan to lay a clean white cloth over the mouth of the cap, 
occasionally turning the inner side out, for the bees rising to the top 
of the super cling to the cloth, and this being now and then turned 
over leaves the bees clinging to it on the outside, and these depart, 
while others take their place, ready in their turn to be by the moving 
of the cloth left outside. If they do not readily leave the cloth they 
may be swept off by a feather. A little perseverance in this plan 
will see the numbers decrease rapidly until but few remain, and thpse 
can often be ejected by a feather ; but as it is far easier to get a live 
bee out than a dead one the greatest care is requisite, or injured by 
the feather, yet not killed, the timid frightened insect goes to the 
inmost recesses of the comb, and there, unable to move, yet desperately 
clinging to the comb, defies all efforts to effect its removal. Bees 
spoil the appearance of a super. The less frightened they are the 
more readily they leave. The more frightened they are the longer it 
takes to remove them. 
There is one plan which seems to succeed with many when all 
others have failed ; and although I have never myself had recourse 
to it, it seems not unlikely to be useful. It is well known that all 
insects are at once attracted by the light, and this may be seen by the 
helpless infatuation which seems to possess the moth as it flutters 
round the frame bent on its own destruction. So, too, with bees. If 
therefore the super is taken into a perfectly dark room, and the 
light allowed to stream in through one small opening, only the bees, 
they say, will leave the super and at once fly to the light and return 
to their hives. If there is no more convenient place a large flower 
pot seems to offer itself in the place of a dark room, the light being 
completely shut out except what comes in through the hole at the 
bottom. By some of these methods all supers can be cleared. If a 
sectional super is employed a great part of this manoeuvring is un¬ 
necessary. Some advise that the sections be taken out each one, 
while the rack remains upon the hive. I do not, nor do I approve 
of this method of taking away each section as filled, but rather 
prefer to leave the earlier finished ones until at any rate all but the 
extreme outside boxes are completely sealed. Honey loses nothing 
by remaining on the hive, but rather gains in being thoroughly well 
ripened in the most natural way. Take the honey by the rack as 
one super in the same manner as before, except that there being no 
spilling occasioned by loosening the rack from the hive prior to its 
removal, there is no necessity to wait as in the case of the ordinary 
glass or cap. The propolis fastening the rack and the hive together 
may be severed, and the former may be at once removed to a quiet 
shady spot; the sections taken out each one singly, the bees swept on 
to a cloth, if the ground is covered with grass, and left to go home at 
will, or at the end of the operation they may be carried to their hive, 
but few will remain. In sweeping the bees from the comb care must 
be taken to sweep them head downwards, or they will sting and so 
cause inconvenience, and as each section is cleared it must be placed 
in a bee-proof crate, thus preventing, as I have often seen, strange 
bees getting on them and necessitating forcible removal, thus wasting 
time and energy. Unfinished sections may be returned either at once, 
or they may be stowed away until another rack being removed there 
are sufficient of these “returns” to form a rack. If, however, 
another rack of empty sections is to be placed as soon as the full one 
is removed, place the unfinished sections at the sides, and those with 
foundation only in them in the centre, so that the whole rack may be 
the more probably sealed at the same time, the outside ones being 
given the advantage because they are generally the last to be worked 
out and sealed. Does anyone how feel unable to place or take away 
a super ? if so, I am uuable to assist him further at present, but no 
doubt “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper,” whose opinion we all value so 
highly on all apicultural matters, may be able to give some useful 
hints and improvements upon the methods I have enumerated, and if 
so I, and in all probability all others, will be glad to read what he to 
whom we all look as the safest guide in the management of bees, 
although we may differ slightly in some unessential points, has to 
say on the subject. —Felix. 
EXTENDING A FRAME HIVE. 
Will you give me your advice on the following ? I have a bar-frame 
hive with seven bars at present, five of which are sealed over. I wish to 
take one swarm then to get as much honey as possible in sections. Ought 
I to add more bars before or after swarming ? and how many bars should 
I add at one time ?—R. C. 
[As you do not state the size of your frames, we cannot say positively 
how many more frames should be added. Our bees are at this moment 
occupying space equal to between 3000 and 4000 cubic inches ; in fact, 
the measurement of the best give 3348 cubic inches for non-swarming 
hives, and for swarming one3 2754 cubic inches. If your hive is 
crowded on to the seven frames you should insert one frame of founda¬ 
tion in centre of combs and another outside until you have a hive of the 
size above. Perform this work as you observe the bee3 crowding towards 
the outside. If your bees had been occupying shallow boxes of the 
Stewarton type it would be more natural for the bees and easier for you 
to add a division at a time. Two hives 15i square by 9 inches deep is a 
good size for either swarming or non-swarming hives. We would advise 
you in an uncertain year like this, to work your hive on the non-swarming 
principle, then immediately after the honey season is past make an arti¬ 
ficial swarm or more and feed up to the necessary weight, having the bees 
in full-sized hives with young queens at their head. This plan will give 
the best return this season and put you on the best footing for next 
year.] 
HIVES WITH FRAMES ACROSS OR PARALLEL TO THE 
ENTRANCE. 
I fbequently see the practice of having the bar-frames parallel with 
the entrance condemned. I shall be glad if you would give the reason, 
as I have one. A friend of mine, who has kept bees for about ten years, 
has one or two hives made on this principle, and he has quite as good 
results from them as from the others, and he cannot see why they should 
be condemned. Bees do not always build their combs at right angles to 
the entrance, as he has a skep, which I have seen, in which the combs are 
nearly parallel with the entrance. 
I saw lately that when you take the frames out of a hive you always 
ought to take out an even number. I shall be glad if you will explain 
this as well.—H. T. S., Lincoln. 
[Our reasons for the condemnation are many. The principal one, 
however, is judging by results. When we see a number of hives managed 
on two different principles, standing side by side, receiving the same 
treatment, and the bees in those having their frames across th. a entrance 
dead, while the others are alive and extra strong, as we have often 
observed, and particularly this year, we may safely conjecture that having 
the frames so placed is the cause of the mortality. But it would not 
be fair to condemn on that alone without being able to give other reasons. 
The argument that bees do not always build their combs at right 
angles to the entrance doe3 not support the theory ; neither is the 
argument of having good results from those having their combs parallel 
to the entrance. Results of that sort go by degrees. The locality may 
be good enough for a hive, if properly managed, to yield to its owner 
400 lbs. of honey, and yet he may only be able to get, say, 20 lbs., and 
this low yield might be called “ good results.” This is by no means 
uncommon. Then it must be remembered that bees in a hive are not 
there according to nature. Bees in a state of nature, as a rule, have their 
combs suspended, for instance from a shelving rock thoroughly protected 
from above, but from the sides or beneath the space is open for venti¬ 
lation. When they take up their abode in trees they are similarly 
protected, having always breathing space beneath. When bees take up 
their abode in a hive, and left to themselves, they incline to twi-t their 
combs, and, as a rule, the ends of the combs are twisted towards the 
entrance in nine cases out of ten, and the twisted combs is Nature’s 
adaptation towards a comfortable breeding place. But our bees are not 
in Nature’s keeping. 
If you select a room having one doorway and no other outlet, fill the 
room with partitions open at the bottom similar to the combs of the 
bees, you will be uuable to crowd animal life into these spaces, but you 
can try the experiment with them both ways. With the ends of the 
combs to the entrance you will find the current of air enter some of these, 
and return by others. The bees can regulate this to a great extent, draw¬ 
ing in the fresh and expelling the vitiated air, and may be able to alter the 
course, but a strong hive will expel the vitiated air before it condenses on 
any part of the hive, and the hive has always a good circulation of air. 
Toe combs placed across the entrance, the current of air may be either 
almost still or extra strong, depending a great deal on the doorway. 
Having the combs across the enhance the perspiration of the bees between 
the combi strikes the wall opposite, and condenses thereon. Now, a bee 
can suffer a number of degrees of frost in a dry atmosphere, and although 
it be chilled, it will in gentle heat revive and fly about, but a bee coming 
iD contact with damp at a temperature much above freezing dies instantly 
—the reason I advocate ventilating floors. Hives with frames across the 
entrance are termed warm hives, the reason I condemn them. Tne 
interior at times during winter becomes in a measure suffocating to the 
